Happy Birthday Mila Ramsay

"Miss you every day - think about you every day - love you every day."

.... Grandfather (A.G.)

Happy Birthday Josephine Baker - singer, dancer, spy, activist, and Paris sensation

Read more about Ms Baker HERE

Congrats to the Centre for Science in the Public Interest for forcing sodium legislation

A typical TV dinner such as this one (1,460 mg of salt) , or some other frozen meal can contain half of a person's recommended daily intake (2,300 mg of salt or more than 100% for a person with hypertension.

"For 39 years, CSPI has been working to reduce the amount of sodium used in packaged and restaurant foods.  We’ve petitioned the Food and Drug Administration repeatedly, and last year we even hauled the agency into federal court (for the second time) to force it to take action.

Today we’ve achieved a historic breakthrough:  The FDA has just published sodium-reduction targets for 150 categories of packaged and restaurant foods.  The targets are voluntary—not mandatory as we and the Institute of Medicine had asked for—but to have the government set official benchmarks for how much sodium is acceptable in various food categories is going to have a major impact on the food supply.  If achieved, these reductions will save tens of thousands of lives each year from preventable heart attacks and stroke, as well as billions of dollars in medical expenses."

Read the FDA's annoucement HERE... the read the story in the Centre for Science in the Public Interest

Los Angeles students force the cops to surrender their grenade launchers

"A coalition of Los Angeles high school students and grassroots organizers just accomplished the unthinkable. After nearly two years of sit-ins and protests, they forced the police department for the second-largest public school district in the United States to remove grenade launchers, M-16 rifles, a mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicle and other military-grade weaponry from its arsenal.

But the coalition did not stop there. Members took over a Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board meeting in February to call for proof that the arms had been returned to the Department of Defense -- a demand they eventually won in the form of an itemized invoice for every weapon sent back to the DoD. "(Department of Defence)

Read the story in Truth Out

Congrats to 6 yr old Akash Vukoti - spelling whiz

"Six-year-old spelling whiz Akash Vukoti doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘intimidated.”

No really, he doesn’t actually know what it means. But he probably knows how to spell it.

The Grade 1 student from San Angelo, Texas, was this year’s youngest contestant at the Scripps Spelling Bee contest in National Harbor, Md. And although he was competing against kids more than twice his age, Vukoti insists he wasn’t scared.

Six-year-old Akash Vukoti, of San Angelo, Texas, the youngest contestant in the 2016 National Spelling Bee, pulls down his microphone to compete in the preliminaries of the Bee at National Harbor, Md., on Wednesday, May 25, 2016. He spelled his word correctly. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Asked Thursday, in an interview on CTV News Channel, whether he felt intimidated by the older kids at the competition, Vukoti gave a puzzled look and then asked, “What does ‘intimidated’ mean?”

Read the story on CTV News

Happy Birthday Honore de Balzac

"A good husband is never the first to go to sleep at night or the last to wake in the morning"...HB**

A good husband is never the first to go to sleep at night or the last to awake in the morning.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/honoredeba386273.html

A good husband is never the first to go to sleep at night or the last to awake in the morning.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/honoredeba386273.html

**Honoré de Balzac born Honoré Balzac, 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie Humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte.

... Wikipedia

Happy Birthday Malcolm X

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/malcolmx387554.html

Born May 19, 1925

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/malcolmx387554.html

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/malcolmx387554.html

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/malcolmx387554.html

"Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it."... Malcolm X

Malcolm X's official WEBSITE

Happy Birthday Florence Nightingale

"Florence Nightingale, 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was a celebrated English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing.

She came to prominence while serving as a manager of nurses trained by her during the Crimean War, where she organised the tending to wounded soldiers. She gave nursing a highly favourable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of "The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded soldiers at night."

... Wikipedia

The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/florenceni159065.html

 "The first requirement of a hospital is that they should do the sick no harm."

The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/florenceni159065.html

The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/florenceni159065.html

The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/florenceni159065.html

Teachers are our best defence against destruction

"For the most part, public school teachers and higher education faculty are a national treasure and may be one of the last defenses available to undermine a growing authoritarianism, pervasive racism, permanent war culture, widening inequality and debased notion of citizenship in US society.

They can't solve these problems but they can educate a generation of students to address them. Yet, public school teachers, in particular, are underpaid and overworked, and lack adequate resources."

Read the story on Truth-Out

Happy Birthday Jacobo Luis Fuchs

Happy Birthday Mr. Fuchs. (1927 to 2014)

"... you are missed"

Happy Birthday Leontine T. Russell

Leontine T. Russell - 1922 to 1990

"Thank you  - miss you"

"And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see - or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read."

...... Alice Walker

Happy Birthday re: Michelle Ramsay and J. Gilles Boulais

 

Happy Birthday William Shakespeare

"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.".... William Shakespeare

"William Shakespeare (23 April 1564  – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet, and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship."

Former paraplegic John Maclean now walks marathons

John walking towards the finish line of a recently held triathlon with his son and wife. 

"John Maclean was riding his bike when he was hit from behind by an eight-tonne truck. The devastating accident left him with incomplete paraplegia, with multiple fractures in his pelvis, back and sternum. His lungs were punctured, his arms were broken, and he wound up in a coma.

He said doctors told his father they didn't expect he would survive.

After undergoing Ware's "trigger process" therapy, Maclean was eventually able to take his first unassisted steps in 2013. The process is described as a way of using specialized neurophysics exercises to activate the nervous system in a way that “stimulates the body to re-organize itself and return to optimal function.”

Taking that first step in 2013 is a feat Maclean still struggles to describe.

"It's difficult to put into words… it was very humbling," he said, noting that his therapists advised him to move beyond the moment and focus instead on the next steps."

Read Ken's amazing story on CTV News

Happy Birthday Lionel Hampton

Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Quincy Jones. In 1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996.

.... Wikipedia

Happy Anniversary to Me

Hey all you lovely folks in the Blogsphere. Today is the second anniversary of this blog (Yeahhhhhh!)

I started this blog April 4, two days shy of a month after my ex - Michelle Ramsay - cut off access to my grandchildren Zyg Ramsay and Mila Ramsay. This blog was the only avenue I had left to establish an electronic paper trail that, years from now, would lead my lovely grandchildren to me, or if I have already reached the end of my life, remind them that I never stopped loving or thinking of them.

Over the past 738 blog posts, my following has grown from zero to many tens of thousands. I thank each and every one of you and I hope my posts about Mother Earth, nutrition, non-violence, fitness, anti-euthanasia, my Family Court battle (see It's Over), politics, ethics, birthdays and passings have been both entertaining, informative, controversial, and creative.

Peace,

James

Cool! The Black Panther comic is coming - thanks Ta-Nehisi Coates

"Most comics don’t generate that much buzz, but then again, most comics aren’t written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a national correspondent for The Atlantic and the best-selling author of “Between the World and Me,” which won the National Book Award last year. One of the most celebrated authors about race in America writing about a black superhero who has pummeled Captain America and members of the Ku Klux Klan? The collective response from fans of comics and Mr. Coates alike: I’d read that.

The book arrives during the 50th anniversary of the Black Panther, who first appeared in issue No. 52 of the Fantastic Four (and yes, he beat them up, too). Next month, the superhero will make his big-screen debut in Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War,” with Chadwick Boseman"

Check out the story in the New York Times and definitely pick up a copy of Black Panther when it hits the stands. 

Happy Birthday Birthday Etta Baker - blues guitar player and mother of nine

Etta Lucille Reid (known as Etta Baker) (March 31, 1913 – September 23, 2006) was an American Piedmont blues guitarist and singer from North Carolina, United States.

She was born in Caldwell County, North Carolina, of African American, Native American, and European American heritage.  She played both the 6-string and 12-string forms of the acoustic guitar, as well as the five-string banjo. Baker played the Piedmont Blues for ninety years, starting at the age of three when she could not even hold the guitar properly.

She was taught by her father, Boone Reid, who was also a longtime player of the Piedmont Blues on several instruments.

Read more about Etta Reid on Wikipedia

Happy travelling Sevelyn Gat

"A woman from Kenya has edited herself into a series of other people's holiday photographs on her Facebook page.

Not being able to afford a trip to Asia, Sevelyn Gat inserted herself into snaps standing next to a plane, on the Great Wall of China and at a temple.

The photoshopped images were so bad that they've been liked thousands of times.
Nairobi businessman Sam Gichuru has now come to her rescue and raised enough money for her to go on holiday."

Read the story on BBC News

Happy Birthday Chico Marx - I'm still laughing

A couple weeks ago I picked up a copy of Harpo Marx's bio - published in 1961. What an amazing family of performers and humanists. Check out Harpo Speaks if you get a chance. I think Groucho also published a bio. Here's what Wiki had to say about Chico.....

"Leonard "Chico" Marx (centre in photo - lived 1887 to 1961) was an American comedian, musician, bandleader, actor and film star as part of the Marx Brothers. His persona in the act was that of a charming, dim-witted albeit crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat. In virtually every film that includes the main trio of the Marx Brothers, Chico is seen working with Harpo Marx, usually as partners in crime.

Leonard was the oldest of the Marx Brothers to live past early childhood (first-born Manfred Marx had died in infancy). In addition to his work as a performer, he played an important role in the management and development of the act, at least in its early years."

.... Wikipedia